Arbuckle v. State

Citations

• 80 Miss. 15

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Procedure. Arraignment. Code 1892, $$ 1407, 4370.</p> <p>Although code 1892, $ 1407, provides for the arraignment of a defendant before trial in a criminal case, yet an arraignment and plea are not necessary to invest the court with jurisdiction to try the case; and a conviction will not be reversed by the supreme court because the record fails to show an arraignment and plea, no objection for want thereof having been made in the circuit court, since code 1892, g 4370, provides that no judgment shall be reversed because of any error or omission in the court below, unless the record shows that the errors complained of were made the ground of special exception in that court.</p> <p>2. Same. Constitutional law. Code 1892, 14370.</p> <p>The above section of the code (§ 4370) is constitutional in its application to arraignment and plea, and to all matters not jurisdictional, but is unconstitutional if applied to jurisdictional matters. Sunt v. State, 61 Miss., 580, overruled.</p> <p>3. Same. Withdrawal of plea. Motion to dismiss overruled. Reinstatement of plea.</p> <p>If a defendant, after arraignment and plea of not guilty, withdraw his plea and move to dismiss the case, and the motion be overruled, and he then goes to trial on the merits, introducing evidence, his plea will be treated as having been withdrawn only for the purposes of the motion, and as reinstated without a formal'renewal.</p> <p>4. Same. Instructions. Vagueness.</p> <p>Indefiniteness and vagueness in the instructions for the state will not constitute reversible error, where the law has been clearly and accurately stated in the charges given for defendant.</p>